Parliament

Parliament (UK) The legislative assembly of the United Kingdom is divided into two houses, the Commons and the Lords, both of which sit in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons in particular served as a patron to the establishment of parliamentary systems throughout the world (even though in many post-colonial African countries they proved completely inappropriate and short-lived). For example, the parliamentary systems of Canada and New Zealand are based on the constitutional and procedural precedent established by the British Parliament.

The most important part of Parliament is the House of Commons. This is directly elected at general elections, and the leader of the party with a majority in the Commons is asked by the monarch to form a government. If no party has a majority, there may be a minority government, or a coalition, in which the Prime Minister is usually the leader of the largest party. Once Members of Parliament (MPs) have been elected to the Commons, the Prime Minister forms a Cabinet of Ministers. This formulates policy, presenting proposals to Parliament which are read three times as bills, and debated. They will also be discussed in Standing or Select Committees, and then voted on. Bills may also be presented by individual members, although this rarely results in the passage of legislation.

Before receiving royal assent, bills must also be discussed by the House of Lords. The 1911 Parliament Act reduced the Lords' power to a suspensive veto of two years, and gave the House of Lords no authority over financial legislation. The veto was reduced to one year in 1949. Membership of the Lords was traditionally by the inheritance of a title. In 1958 the Life Peerages Act created non-hereditary peerages which would be granted to a person (male or female) for the term of their life. From 1963, women holding hereditary peerages were permitted to enter the Lords. Despite these reforms, the existence of a second chamber based on privilege and birthright was a unique anachronism for a democracy, and gave the Conservative Party a huge inbuilt majority in the second chamber. Fundamental reform was envisaged by the Labour Party under Tony Blair. In its first stage, hereditary peers were no longer eligible to sit in the House, but they were allowed to select 92 peers who would continue as representatives for a transitional period. These were now outweighed by 26 Anglican bishops and over 500 appointed life peers whose party affiliation broadly represented national party strength. Ironically, as the House could now claim greater legitimacy in its composition, it became more assertive in its stance against a series of government bills. The Labour Party continued to insist that the new House of Lords was awaiting a final reform, but found it difficult to establish a cross-party consensus about the basis for its composition.

http://www.parliament.uk